Cashback vs Price Comparison

Two different tools, two different promises. Cashback pays you a slice back after the fact; price comparison gets you the lowest price up front. Here's when each actually wins.

Two fundamentally different mechanisms

Cashback sites like ShopBack work as an affiliate middleman - you click through their link to a retailer, the retailer pays ShopBack a commission for sending the sale, and ShopBack shares a slice of that commission back to you, usually paid out weeks later once the return window has closed. Price comparison and tracking tools work differently: they show you what the same product costs across multiple retailers right now, plus its price history, so you can pick the actual lowest price before you buy anything at all.

One rewards you after the purchase with a small percentage of the price you already paid. The other tries to lower the price you pay in the first place. They are not really competing for the same job.

Where cashback genuinely wins

• You were already going to buy at full price: if you have already decided on a specific retailer and price, and there's no cheaper alternative elsewhere, cashback is pure upside - a percentage back on money you were spending anyway.
• High-commission categories: travel bookings and some subscription sign-ups can carry noticeably higher cashback rates than everyday electronics, making the payout more meaningful.
• Stacking on top of an already-good price: cashback and a genuinely low price are not mutually exclusive - the best outcome is finding the cheapest retailer via comparison, then buying through a cashback link to that same retailer if one exists.

Where price comparison wins

• Electronics and appliances specifically: price differences between NZ retailers on the same TV, laptop or phone are commonly 5-15%, which usually dwarfs a 1-3% cashback rate on the same item.
• Avoiding a fake discount: cashback tells you nothing about whether the underlying price is actually good - see our fake discounts guide. A 5% cashback on an inflated was-price sale is still a bad deal overall.
• No waiting, no conditions: the saving is baked into the price you pay today, with no dependency on a return window closing or a retailer correctly reporting the sale to a third party.

The catch with cashback worth knowing

Consumer NZ and RNZ have both looked into how cashback sites actually work and flagged the same basic caveat: payouts depend on the retailer correctly reporting the sale to the cashback platform, tracking can fail (ad blockers, using a different device, using a promo code not sourced through the cashback link), and the cash typically isn't available to withdraw until well after the purchase - sometimes months, if it's tied to a return period. It is a real saving, but a less certain and much slower one than knowing you paid the lowest price at the till.

What to actually do

For anything over about $100 - electronics, appliances, big-ticket items - check price comparison first and buy from whichever retailer is genuinely cheapest. Only after settling on a retailer, check if a cashback link to that same retailer exists and use it if the tracking is reliable. Don't let a cashback percentage talk you into buying from a retailer that's actually more expensive overall.